Fiber Patch Cords, SFP/SFP+/QSFP, WDM Assemblies, etc

Tag Archives: cable

To understand the challenges of MPO cable validation, it’s necessary to understand MPO cables and how they’re tested in the field. An MPO connection is about the size of a fingernail and contains 12 optical fibers, each less than the diameter of a human hair – and each one needs to be tested separately. That traditionally means the use of a fan-out cord to isolate each fiber, followed by tedious manual testing, tracing, and error-prone calculations.

Testing and determining fiber polarity is another challenge. The simple purpose of any polarity scheme is to provide a continuous connection from the link’s transmitter to the link’s receiver. For array connectors, TIA-568-C.0 defines three methods to accomplish this: Methods A, B, and C. Deployment mistakes are common because these methods require a combination of patch cords with different polarity types

So what would a proper MPO test look like? The answer is simple: Test all 12 fibers – the whole cable – simultaneously and comprehensively (including loss, polarity, etc.). That sort of test capability changes the fiber landscape, enabling installers and technicians to efficiently validate and troubleshoot fiber – flying through the process by tackling an entire 12-fiber cable trunk with the push of a button.

The tools to perform this type of test are just emerging on the market, and promise to reduce the time and labor costs up to 95% over individual fiber tests (according to internal research based on the average list of standard competitive products). Characteristics to look for in such a tool include:

An onboard MPO connector to eliminate the complexity and manual calculations associated with a fan-out cord.
A single “Scan All” test function that delivers visual verification via an intuitive user interface for all 12 MPO fibers in a connector.
Built-in polarity verification for end-to-end connectivity of MPO trunk cables.
“Select Individual Fiber” function that enables the user to troubleshoot a single fiber with more precision.
Demand for fast and reliable delivery of critical applications is driving data center technology to evolve at an ever-increasing pace. And that insatiable need for bandwidth ensures that the integrity of the data center has become inextricably linked to the strength of the fiber cabling infrastructure. The growing use of MPO fiber trunks – and the migration from 10-Gbps to 40/100-Gbps connections – means that it’s time to stop the cumbersome verification of individual fibers. After all, it’s a single MPO connection. You should be able to test it as one.

but the fiber optic pigtail = fiber optic connector + fiber optic cable. I think like this is easy to separate between them.

Recently, I have readed a discussion about the difference between fiber pigtail and patch core. There are so many professinal people to discuss it. They give me a clear understanding that:

Patch cords are made from either single or multi-fiber cables (usually rated for indoor use) and connected at each end with fiber cable connectors (either single fiber or multiple-fiber connector). Sometimes patch cords are called jumpers, especially if they are simplex or duplex. The connectors are selected to mate with the interfacing equipment or cable connectors. The important idea is that the cable has a connector at each end. The fiber can be either tight or loose buffered and the cable can be made of various diameters (1.2 mm to 3.0 mm are common). The patch cord may have one type of connector (ST FC, SC, LC, etc) on one end and a different connector on the other as long as all the fibers are connectorized on each cable end – this is a transition jumper. Patch cords are commonly used to connect ports on fiber distribution frames (FDFs). The new mpo connecter make it possible to run a singel cable that automatically terminates 12 fibers in one easy plug in. Compared to common patch cord with ST FC, SC, LC connetor, MPO cable is a truly innovative and amazing group of products that really takes fiber optics into the new millennium.

A pigtail is a cable (like a pach cord or jumper) with only one end terminated with an optical connector. Patch cords are often cut into shorter lengths to make two pigtails. Pigtails are found anywhere, but more commonly in optical assemblages or optical components

Pigtails are installed where they will be protected and spliced,lets say on the inside of the ODF and that’s why they are normally not sheathed. They have a coating colour so that you slice them on the corresponding colour on the out coming fiber.
On the other hand patch codes are used between the ODF to the WDM MUXor equipment. If you cut a patch code for use as pigtail then in case of future faulting where you are dealing with multiple pairs it will be difficult. But still if you need to cut the patch code check on its characteristics.

In general, the only major physical differnce b/w patch cord & pigtail is that patch cord is a fixed length piece of cable with dual ended fiber connector type may vary & pigtail is one meter standard OFC core with white white colored jacket. As per standard pigtail can only be used for OFC termination purpose & patch cord is to be used to connect the active component with ODF so that means pigtail can not be used at the place of patch cord.

The city where I live, Palo Alto has a long tradition of providing municipal utility services (that is, electricity, water, gas, etc) to its residents. For the past several years the city has been considering implementing a municipal fiber optic system which would permit residents to have fiber optic cable link directly to their houses which provided television, telephone and Internet services (at very high bandwidths). Naturally, the incumbent service providers (cable and phone) strongly lobby against such moves (for precisely the same reasons these companies wish to be monopolists in the first place.) The incumbents have sabotaged municipal FTTH fiber efforts in the past — specifically in the “tri-cities” region in Illinois, around the far west suburbs of Chicago.

In this Sunday’s Mercury News, there’s an article which discusses the city’s plan to make a final feasibility study of the project and a recommendation to the city council. Even if the city council votes in favor of the project, there will be a city wide referendum, since fiber optic cable prices would require millions of dollars in bonds to finance.

As a resident of Palo Alto, as well as a technology advocate, I’m rather strongly in favor of such a move by the city, even though it carries some financial risk (if the fiber optic plan flops, the city would have to raise its rates for other utilities).

At last there might be a means of transmission which is separated from the fiber optic cable providers, something that the local cable and phone companies absolutely refuse to provide.

Imagine a network with massive amounts of bandwidth where multiple companies competed to send content down that connection to a consumer. How would this be anything but a win-win situation for everyone? The city sells the bandwidth to many different companies, consumers have lots of choices in content providers, and the content providers are collecting revenue for their content — and that’s the whole point anyway isn’t it?

Fiber optic communications explains about the way communication takes place through optical fiber. Although its history is short the use of optical fiber has grown considerably when compared with its beginning. It is now seen as one of the most used factors where communication is concerned. Below you will find a more detailed description of what optical fiber is.

The question you might ask yourself is why you should change from your current source to optical fiber. Well, if you simply look at the growing need for communication, you will be able to make a more informed decision. The trend in communication has moved from information that is communicated to more information digitalized. All communication information cannot be possible without a carrier that will have to contain more bandwidth. As frequency determines the carrier’s bandwidth and light carries the highest frequency, it has therefore been found that fiber optics is the strongest way of carrying the needed light.

As it has been confirmed that light is the best carrier of information, the conducting of light will be an important factor in hosting all the information successfully. As fiber optics is a transparent and flexible filament, it has been shown to carry the light in the most effective way. Another important factor is that optical fiber will follow the internal reflection law in order to transmit the light and therefore the information.

Light waves need to be transmitted and received in the correct way and is made possible by the laser diode and photodiode that are the two key components to the fiber optics.

With all these carefully thought out innovations, fiber optics has now become the most successful tool in connecting people from all over the globe.

Fiber optic communications have become mainstream, fiber optic cable sale also received the favor of businessman. Fiberstore, as the leading fiber fiber optic cable providers, have 10 years history on the field of fiber optic communications. The global, vertically-integrated business model and expertise in optical design enables FiberStore to rapidly deliver market-leading, high performance fiber optic components and subsystems. The R&D and engineering teams provide strong innovative capability , who have core technical knowledge ranging from optoelectronic device, optical subassembly, and module design, to product and manufacturing process development expertise. With over 200 employees primarily in Dong Guan and ShenZhen, we can serve the customers and distribution partners around the world fast. What’s more, our custom service and wholesale service save customers’ time and money, making customers enjoy personalization.